


turn me on with your electric feel

by orphan_account



Series: flowers for a paladin [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: M/M, Porn with Feelings, Semblance Play, character death mention, post-S3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-06
Updated: 2016-07-06
Packaged: 2018-07-21 22:45:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7408213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's like..." He hesitated. "When I touch you. It's like I'm touching, uh, myself."</p>
            </blockquote>





	turn me on with your electric feel

**Author's Note:**

> title taken from MGMT's [Electric Feel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmZexg8sxyk).

They'd been on the road three months now, though it felt longer, heading to Haven on foot in search of answers. Most people who passed them by or rented them rooms at motels probably assumed they were a team, a bunch of students sent out for a mission, but they didn't consider themselves one. Not an official team with a name and everything, anyway. Nora had brought it up once, but Ruby merely shook her head and drew her hood close.

Jaune understood. Forming a new team would mean acknowledging out loud that Pyrrha was dead. That Team RWBY was officially no more.

They didn't have a leader, either. If anything, he and Ruby usually sort of co-led, nervously tossing each other ideas before deciding on a course of action. In some ways, it was better. Ruby had a good head on her shoulders, and her suggestions were usually pretty good. But sometimes Ruby would be at a loss for words, and Jaune would have to square his shoulders and force his team through pouring rain or thundering winds to get to their next stop.

Nora took it well, like she did most things, laughing and joking their way through bustling foreign towns and dark, damp forests, and Jaune pretended not to hear the occassional strain in her voice or notice how her smile sometimes didn't quite reach her eyes. Sometimes he thought to himself that they would never have made it this far without Nora cheering them along.

But Ren, though--Ren was even quieter than before, only speaking up when someone asked his opinion of something. It worried him, partly because Ren had always sort of made him anxious. Back at Beacon, he'd always thought either he or Pyrrha would have been better choices for team leaders; Pyrrha would shake him and tell him otherwise, but he'd never recieved that sort of reassurance from Ren.

Jaune sucked in a breath and glanced around. It was forest again, today, and they'd reached a clearing of some kind, flat ground surrounded by trees. "I feel like we could stop here for today," he suggested, glancing around for any kind of objection. "We've been going three days straight. I think we could all use a break."

Ruby nodded, already dropping their packs to the ground. "Sounds good to me."

"Ooh, I'll go look for firewood! We can have marshmallows!"

"We're out of those," Jaune reminded Nora, but she was already darting into the bushes, Ren glancing up in what he supposed was amusement.

The three of them sat around, helping Ruby set up tents and go over their battered road map to make sure they were on the right track. The road ahead split into a fork but joined together later on, and they argued good-naturedly about which road would be better to take. Or, at least, he and Ruby talked, and Ren sat next to them and said nothing, staring at the direction Nora had disappeared off to.

He didn't know why Ren's silence bothered him so much. Jaune let his tongue flick over his lips, wetting them. "Ren? What do you think?"

Ren blinked, shrugging. "They both sound alright."

Jaune's shoulders fell. "Hey, if there's anything bothering you--"

"I'm fine." Ren's forehead creased.

"Jaune, I was thinking." Ruby cut in, still poring over their map. "We should practice with your Semblance again. There's a ton of Grimm sightings listed here, you might need it."

"What, right now?"

"Why not?"

He hesitated. Ren was staring at him expectantly.

"Sure. Give me a sec."

They'd figured out as much that Jaune's Semblance had something to do with absorbing energy and reflecting it back on his opponent; awfully cool, but only useful for last-ditch, close-quarters fights. Ruby transformed Crescent Rose into its gun form and gave herself enough space for a running start.

"Okay, on the count of three I'm gonna run at you and hit you with everything I've got! Get your Semblance ready!"

Jaune swallowed and took a defensive stance and willed himself to connect to his Aura. He didn't know if it had anything to do with how his had to be unlocked, rather than something instinctive, like the others seemed to have, but it'd taken him ages to learn how to activate his Semblance on command the way the others seemed to be able to.

"Three!"

He reluctantly raised his shield high, trying to anticipate Ruby's angle of attack.

"Two!"

Ren settled himself on a smooth boulder and pushed hair out of his eyes, watching them.

He barely heard Ruby call out _one_ before she slammed into him full force and the business end of Crescent Rose crashed into his shield--

\--but at the same time the world shimmered and Ruby went flying backwards.

He paled, folding up his shield, preparing to run. "Oh God, Ruby, are you--"

"I'm fine!" A hand shot up from the shallow crater she'd left in the ground, waving frantically; another hand unfolded Crescent Rose and used its handle to help pull her to her feet. "Well, at least this time you got it to work before I hit you!"

"Oh, man. Don't remind me." He was pretty sure he still had a mark from _that_ training session.

"You went a lot further than you should have," Ren said, when Ruby finally made it over to them.

Jaune's mouth went slack. "And that means...?"

"That means you don't just reflect energy, you can amplify it." Ruby looked thoughtful. "That's really--"

There was a high-pitched shriek in the distance. They instantly huddled together, hands to their weapons. Nora didn't shriek. She whooped or hollered instead. Shrieking meant trouble.

"It doesn't sound too serious." Ren said, though hesitant. "She probably fell into a hunting pit again."

"I'll go check on her." Ruby yanked at the silver brooch around her neck, refastening her cape and hood. "You two--uh, you two keep on practicing!"

Being alone with Ren was--he supposed _awkward_ would be a light way of putting it. Ren seemed perfectly content to stay unmoving and quiet and it made Jaune feel oddly guilty about fidgeting with his hair and nails. He decided to mess with his Semblance instead, reaching into his soul and trying to flick it on and off, on and off--

"What are you doing?"

He swallowed. "Practicing?"

"Hm."

Jaune stared at his hands again, at the buzz and flicker of his Semblance, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Ren sat down next to him and their hands brushed.

"Dude, wh--" He started, then stopped at the expression on Ren's face, the way his teammate clutched at his own hand as if burned. "Something wrong?"

Ren frowned at his hand, frowned at Jaune, and leaned in to boop his nose.

"Weird."

" _What's_ weird?"

"I can feel it."

"Feel _what_?" The edge to his voice was almost hysterical, but Ren only moved closer, running a thumb across the line of his left cheekbone, then reaching up to touch his own, as if transfixed.

"It's like..." He hesitated. "When I touch you. It's like I'm touching, uh, myself, but it's..."

"Amplified." Jaune echoed, starting to understand.

"Yes." Ren had his head lowered, eyes hidden behind long eyelashes. "And--don't take this the wrong way, but it feels really... good."

The breath caught in his throat. Jaune let his Semblance flicker off, staring at his gloved hands, trying to shake off the hot flush of embarassment that crept up his neck and spine. Part of him, the responsible part of him, the _Pyrrha_ part of him, told him to excuse himself and leave well alone until Ruby and Nora came back, and then things would go back to normal. But another part of him marveled at the tone of Ren's voice. He'd never heard Ren sound so--so open, so _bothered_...

"Ren," he started, feeling like he was treading thin ice. "Something's been bothering you, hasn't it?"

Ren made no indication that he'd heard.

"Tell me what it is, and I'll--" It shouldn't have come out this desperately, but it did, and Jaune thought he would die of shame before Ren could do anything. "I'll let you touch me."

That got a reaction. His teammate looked up, lips slightly parted, eyes wide, and he couldn't help the stream of _oh man oh man oh man he's interested he's_ really _interested_ that flitted through his mind. Apprehension pooled in his stomach, the same way it would before a fight. Still, Jaune forced his Semblance to flicker back to life, a little stunned by how easily it came to him now. He lifted one of Ren's hands and ran the palm over the sensitive skin of his neck, trying his best not to squirm or to look away.

He expected Ren's hand to fall once he let go, but Ren kept it there, making small, tentative brushes along the curve of his jaw, as if unsure of how far he was allowed to take things. Ren went red when Jaune reached up to unfasten his armour, a previously ordinary gesture suddenly becoming too intimate. He said nothing of it, sure that he looked equally embarassed, and focused on settling his loose breastplate to one side instead.

Ren helped him with the pauldrons on his left arm while he undid the ones on his right. He wasn't sure if it helped; all it did was make Jaune even clumsier than usual. Ren touched his arm, running his fingers from rough cloth to exposed skin; one of them made an odd, choking noise, and their eyes met, skittish, nervous.

"So," Jaune prompted. "Wanna talk?"

"I was hoping you'd forget about that," Ren answered, his smile a brief, shy pull of his lips. He rested his hand on Jaune's shoulder. "How weird do you wanna make this?"

"A-as weird as you want it to be," he said, and immediately hoped he wouldn't regret it.

One of Ren's hands crawled under his hoodie, peeling his undershirt away and running questioning fingers along the dip of his spine. Jaune sighed into the top of Ren's head, whose entire body shuddered; he felt a small burst of envy and curiosity, wondering how it felt, wishing it were the other way around. He gasped when cold air hit his back, Ren hiking up his clothes inch by inch, trying to gain more purchase on his skin.

"It's Cinder," Ren admitted, so softly Jaune couldn't hear him at first through the haze of dizzying sensations. "And whoever she's working for. They're--they've got to be powerful, if even Ozpin's afraid of them..."

"Ozpin's not afraid." Jaune protested weakly.

"Then why's he in hiding?"

He fell silent. Ren caressed the sharp lines of his shoulderblades, his spine, almost absent-minded in his actions. Jaune shifted his leg and it brushed against Ren's thigh, making him jump. Jaune pulled his leg away even further, unsure if Ren wanted to be touched, but he didn't seem displeased.

"As weird as I want, right?"

Jaune nodded, letting himself be pushed to the ground, Ren's hands now skirting his chest. It was too much and not enough at the same time, the heat and hardness between his legs horribly insistent, and if the expression on Ren's face was anything to go by, he was feeling much, much worse. He bent one of his legs at the knee, let Ren gasp and buck against the sudden pressure, trying not to think about what it'd look like if Ruby suddenly came back with Nora.

"So that's what it is?" He asked, trying to catch Ren's expression. "You're scared of who--of what we'll have to fight?"

"Aren't you?"

Jaune opened his mouth to--to protest, or to agree, he wasn't sure, but what came out instead was a high, embarassing ' _ohhh_ '. He lifted his hands to his mouth, biting hard on grass-smelling leather.

Ren stiffened, lifting his hand from Jaune's crotch. "Sorry. That was too much."

He frowned, wondering whether it was what Ren had just said or did that was 'too much'. "No, it's--it's fine. Keep going."

Ren's fingers hovered over the line of Jaune's zipper. The light touch was maddening, but must have been even more so for Ren, who ducked his head even further and actually bit down on his lower lip.

"I can't."

"What? I told you, it's fine--"

"No, I can't." Ren pushed back onto his haunches, frustrated. "I'll--it's so _much_. It feels like I'll come as soon as I touch your dick."

He was sure half the blood in his body rushed to his face at that, the other half crowding his dick, at the realization that none of what they'd just done had meant anything, that Ren had just been using him for his own satisfaction--and he didn't want to think about why he found _that_ so hot. Jaune stilled, unsure of what to do. He let his Semblance fall away, his entire body falling limp as soon as he did so, the toll of maintaining his Semblance for so long finally catching up to him. Ren watched from under his long bangs, his expression guilty and--and something else.

"It's not just Cinder, is it?"

"No," Ren agreed. "It's--it's everything. We don't know what we're doing, Jaune. That's what I'm afraid of. We don't even know what we're going to find at Haven, if we're even going to find anything, and we don't know what we'll do after that..."

Jaune pushed himself off the ground and leaned his arms around Ren, the position awkward, his body too boneless and Ren too stiff. But his expression was breaking and his voice had begun to shake and it was all Jaune could think of to do, the gesture almost comically innocent in the face of all they'd just done.

"I thought things were going to be easy, Jaune," Ren's voice sounded weary, thin. "Nora and I were going to graduate from Beacon and everything was going to be _all right_."

He understood. He'd thought like that once, too: he was going to go Beacon and train to become a hero and meet a beautiful girl there and marry her after graduation. He'd gone to Beacon and lagged behind his classmates in every subject and the beautiful girl he'd thought he wanted was now locked up in a tower, hidden away from the people she loved, and the beautiful girl he ended up wanting was now nothing but ashes scattered in the wind.

"Hey," Jaune said, mouth pressed close to Ren's shoulder. "You still wanna make things weird?"

Ren looked like he was about to protest, but eventually shook his head, almost resigned. "Sure," he said, leaning into Jaune's shoulder. "Go ahead."

There was no Semblance in between them this time, no magic, both in a literal and a metaphorical sense. Jaune pushed his hand down the front of Ren's pants and stroked him until he spilled over Jaune's fingers, chest heaving, hair threatening to come undone. Jaune swallowed, though his throat was dry, and tried to ignore Ren's half-lidded eyes on him as he took care of himself.

Fate must have had a strange sense of humour, because as soon as Jaune fell back, now completely spent, Ruby came bursting back into the clearing with Nora skipping beside her.

"Guys! Guys, guys, guys!" Nora exclaimed, out of breath but delighted. "You won't believe this! There's this old Huntress lady who lives in a cottage out here, and she says we can stay over for the night, _and_ she says she's got a nephew who did security for the Tournament and he told her some super top secret confidential stuff--"

"Why do you two look so tired?" Ruby asked, head tilted to one side, eyebrows raised as they scrambled to compose themselves and Jaune tried to splutter out some kind of response.

Nora huffed. "Go clean up! We don't want Mrs. Pendragon to think we're weird."

Despite all their protests, Nora practically frogmarched them to a stream a few miles behind their campsite, and made them promise not to take too long while she and Ruby packed up their gear. Ren took his things downstream and spent the rest of the evening pointedly not making eye contact with Jaune.

But that night, with the four of them crowded into Mrs Pendragon's spare room, the fan lazily turning and the girls' snores and deep breaths filling the room like a reassuring lullaby--Ren's hand fell into his own, and Jaune held on to it till dawn.

**Author's Note:**

> you can find me at @gokaisaber on twitter.


End file.
